911 CALLERS SHOULD SPEAK ENGLISH, CHAIRMAN OF STATE CAMPAIGN SAYS

Callers to the 911 emergency lines should be able to report fires, assaults and other crises in English, the chairman of a campaign to make English the official state language said Wednesday.

Dr. Robert Melby, chairman of the Florida English Campaign, said the burden of learning a new language should be placed on immigrants, rather than on public servants.

"We have people who call in and can't say their street addresses in English. We have people dying because of it," said Melby, a St. Petersburg optometrist and former state legislator.

"We can either put this monkey on the back of our new immigrants, and say if you're going to be part of this great society of ours you're going to have to learn English, or you're going to have to require that all of the emergency operators, the firemen and all, are bilingual or trilingual," Melby said.

Melby noted that in order to become a naturalized U.S. citizen, immigrants must demonstrate "the ability to read, write and speak words in ordinary usage in the English language." That requirement has not been enforced in recent years, especially for older immigrants, he said.

He did not advocate an immediate end to emergency calls in other languages, but said that should come "down the road aways" when current newcomers have had time to learn English.

The Florida English Campaign began collecting petition signatures Jan. 28 to put a constitutional amendment on the ballot designating English as Florida's official lanugage. A successful petition would require nearly 342,000 signatures, including 8 percent of the voters in each of 10 congressional districts who were registered for the last presidential election.

Melby debated the amendment Wednesday with Sen. Roberta Fox, D-Miami, at a meeting of the political Tiger Bay Club. He argued that the bill would be the first step toward saving millions of tax dollars used to translate ballots, state licensing tests and other documents.

The bill would make English Florida's official language, and give the Legislature power to enact "appropriate" legislation. The bill itself does not contain any changes in the way tax money is used, or any new language restrictions.

"This is not anti-Spanish, anti-Vietnamese or anti-speaking other languages. It's pro-English," Melby said. "It would not prevent people from speaking any language they want except in their business with the government."

Asked if language regulation would result, Melby replied, "That would be up to the Legislature."

"Would you change the name of the state?" a member of the audience asked Melby.